Writing for the Web
Press releases: spin and propagandaApril 21, 2008: Press releases are a form of propaganda. Publishing them on your website shows your customers how you are attempting to spin the media. More
Your website: Just words?
February 25, 2008: Words are the building blocks of every website. But then, words are the building blocks of modern civilization. More
Killer web Content examples
October 01, 2007: Out of 18 choices, why does one piece of content get 49 percent of the vote while another gets 0 percent? More
Time for content to become more scientific
September 17, 2007: Senior managers don't take content seriously because people who write content don't come across as being serious. If content professionals want more respect, they need to present content as a science, not an art. More
Impediments to seeing information as a task
June 04, 2007: Those who created information rarely had to worry about the impact of what they wrote. Until the Web. More
Links are the grammar of the Web
March 05, 2007: Linking is the foundation of every quality website. Everything starts with the link. You build from the link, not from the sentence. More
The twilight of print
February 26, 2007: When the tool changes, so too should the skill and the technique. More and more, hypertext is replacing text and the Web is replacing print. More
Don't let your blog come back to haunt you
February 12, 2007: In an age of instant messaging, you should take a lot more than an instant to consider what exactly it is you're communicating. More
PDFs are evil, lazy, slothful and sinful
February 05, 2007: PowerPoints are the curse of the intranet, and PDFs the curse of the Web. PDFs reflect print thinking. On the Web, we need web thinking. More
Choose customer words, not organization words
May 22, 2006: An organizational structure that may work very well for your internal needs may not work at all well for your customers. Here's why. More
The two fundamental skills of web writing
June 20, 2005: Writing for how people search and writing quality links are the two fundamental skills of web writing. Think carefully about search behavior and make sure your links are always clear and logical. More
Your website needs a call to action
May 16, 2005: The Web is task focused. The best websites get to the point. They ruthlessly eliminate waffle and happy talk. They focus on helping people complete key tasks as quickly as possible. More
Secrets of great web headings and summaries
November 01, 2004 : Your website success will increase the better you write headings and summaries. People are very impatient, so the heading and summary really needs to be compelling. Here are some key tips for writing better headings and summaries. More
Web writing: How to judge a good website from a bad one
September 06, 2004 : How a website has written its links is an excellent way to judge its quality. Good websites tend to have a rich and intuitive link structure. Good web writers think clearly about how each piece of content links up with the rest of the content on the website. More
Learn how to implement an effective web style guide
May 17, 2004: A style guide helps you quickly and cost-effectively publish content that is of a consistent quality. It is particularly important when there are lots of editors and authors involved in the publishing process. A good style guide takes a lot of time and effort to create. Unless its implementation is policed, it will not achieve its objectives. More
How to tell people what else you do on your website
March 22, 2004: People come to your website on a mission. They want to do something specific. They are tunnel readers. Telling them what else you do—without annoying them—is a major challenge. Doing it well is about relevance and context. It’s about presenting the right content at the right time. More
How to design for the tunnel reader
March 15, 2004: People may initially scan read on the Web; their eyes moving quickly across a page. However, when they find the keywords they are interested in, they tend to tunnel read. What this means is that they focus on a specific set of content. They basically don’t see anything else on your website. More
Metadata: seven tips for writing better keywords
March 01, 2004 : The shift in how search engines treat keywords is significant. They tend to ignore the keyword metatag and rather look for keywords in the actual page content. This means that you need to figure out your keywords before you write any content. Then, you include them throughout your content, particularly in headings and summaries. More
Press releases are awful web content
February 23, 2004: In the hierarchy of content, the press release is a bottom feeder. It is a single cell organism. In fact, it was never meant to see the light of day. To most people, reading a press release is about as interesting as reading a parking fine. And yet press releases proliferate on the Web. More
What makes a great website?
February 02, 2004 : What makes a great website is focus and clarity of purpose. A great website is unpretentious. It doesn’t pretend to be what it is not. It never wastes your time because it always gets to the point. A great website helps you to act. More
Choose your words carefully on the Web
September 22, 2003: What does "customer care" or "in a moment" mean to you? Probably something very different from what Dell and McAfee mean. The words you use make a big difference on the Internet. Carefully chosen, they can keep a customer happy. Sloppily chosen, they can infuriate. More
Your website is for your customer, not for you
September 15, 2003: An organization is a form of group. Groups can be elitist. Groups are always trying to define who is in and who is out. To a great many organizations, the customer is on the outside. To be a success, a website must live on the outside. More
Seven deadly sins of web writing
July 28 2003 : What's the single most important thing that could improve the Web? It's not broadband. It's better writing. The general quality of writing on the Web is poor. The way you write has a major impact on what people think of you. Avoid these common mistakes and you will achieve more with your website. More
Writing for the Web: Part 2
May 05, 2003: Writing for the Web requires careful planning. Your content needs to fit well within the context of your website. When a reader finds your content, they need to be able to scan it quickly. That's what metadata is about. In order for your website to be found, you need to write for how people search. More
Writing for the Web: Part 1
April 28, 2003: Writing for the Web is not the same as writing for print. People read differently on the Web. They scan read—jumping quickly from one piece of content to the next. People are much more action-orientated on the Web. They get online to get something done. Words should always be driving actions. More
Enhancing the credibility of your web content
March 10, 2003: It's vital to establish the credibility of your content with your reader as quickly as possible. If your brand is well known and respected, then you start from a strong base. Another way to enhance credibility is to provide author information. Where appropriate, dating your content can help too. More
Is your content credible and trustworthy?
February 24, 2003: The Internet is the single greatest source for information in human history. It is responsible for a revolution in how people inform themselves. The Achilles Heel of the Internet is that much content is neither trustworthy nor credible. While embracing the Internet, people are also highly skeptical of the content they find. More
No silver bullet for web content
February 03, 2003: There is no silver bullet that will solve your web content problem. There is no magical formula, no sleek software, that will take away the pain of badly written, badly organized content. Creating quality content that is well organized requires a lot of training, skill and hard work. More
Words make your website a success
October 14, 2002: The success of your website is down to the quality of the words you publish on it. Words are your fundamental asset and building block. Your metadata, classification and navigation are made up of words. Your content depends on words. The search engine indexes words, and people search using words. So, why do so many websites treat words with so little respect? More
How you can design for the scan reader
April 29, 2002 : As the volume of information rapidly expands, the time to read this information remains relatively static. There are only twenty-four hours in the day; only so much attention to go around. How are you going to get people to read your content? Understanding and planning for how people scan read on the Web is a good start. More
Don't call people users
April 01, 2002 : 'User' is a catchall and ultimately a mean-nothing word. It reflects a technology-centric, rather than a people-centric view of the Web. To call someone a user is largely meaningless. To call them a reader, customer, investor, employee, creates a focus for why you have a website and what you want it to achieve. More
Your website should have an opinion
March 11, 2002: People want your opinion when they come to your website. They want to know why your products are so good. They want to know what's the latest news from your organization. They want to know why you are such a great organization to do business with. More
You are what you type
February 04, 2002: “You are what you wear” is a well-known phrase. Dressing well in business can have an important impact. It can help you make that sale or get that job. Typing/writing well is equally important. It can help you make that sale or get that job. Because of the Web and email, writing today is a more important skill than ever. More
The need for simple English on the Web
January 28, 2002: This is an age cursed with complexity. On every side we are bombarded. We are yearning for simplicity. Our language has been invaded by an unruly mob of new words and terms. There has never been a greater need to write clear, simple English. More
Why we type
January 21, 2002: We type to inform. We inform so as to communicate knowledge. Knowledge is the useful stuff that's inside our heads. If our typing does not communicate knowledge then it fails. Much typing on the Internet fails. The problem is getting worse. Very little is being done to solve it. More
Are online communities working?
September 03, 2001>: Around 1995/96, it was believed by many, including myself, that online (virtual) communities were going to have a radical impact on the way people socialized and did business. Five years on, there are lots of these ‘communities.’ However, few have figured out how to make any money out of them, and their impact has remained marginal. More
The text revolution
June 25, 2001: People are writing and reading more than they ever have. From websites to mobile phones, we are witnessing a second text revolution, where the power of the word is again dominating our culture and economy. More
Creating content collaboratively
May 21, 2001:The Internet is a driver of collaboratively created content. The belief that such content is inherently inferior to content created by an individual is simply not true. (Shakespeare collaborated.) More
Generating content
October 02, 2000: Last month, entertainment website pop.com went flop. Pop.com is an interesting story for a number of reasons. Firstly, DreamWorks was behind it. Led by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen, DreamWorks is not used to flops. Per movie it grosses more than any other studio. Secondly, after spending more than $7 million, pop.com never even launched. More
The bread and butter Internet
May 22, 2000: In this great trend of the rise of the visual, the Internet is a great aberration, a great big return to a black and white past where it was text for breakfast, text for dinner and text for supper. More
